The crabs known as fiddlers (Fig. 149) are common up and down the Atlantic coast, especially in the warmer portions. A most interesting colony lived north of Fernandina, Florida. Some years ago a plank walk led across their domain, and one could stand and watch their ludicrous maneuvers. The fiddler is not over an inch in length. It is of a dark ivory hue, and its eyes are perched on long stalks, so that it can bury itself in the mud and thrust its eyes upward, and thus in perfect safety observe everything that is going on. The right claw of this crab is half as long again as its entire body--a colossal weapon framed for an animal five or ten times its size. Indeed, it is so large as to be almost useless, for a large amount of strength is required to operate so gigantic an implement. To emphasize the undue size of this claw, the left one is a dwarf, being too small to act as a defensive weapon. How so small a crab can use so strange a pair of weapons was a puzzle, until by watching them, I discovered that the crab uses its large claw as a bogy, brandishing it fiercely, which gives it a very ferocious appearance. The movement of the claw back and forth is called fiddling, hence the name of the crab, which appears to be constantly fiddling. Where hundreds are seen, all fiddling and menacing one another at the same time, the sight is laughable. [Illustration: FIG. 149.--Fiddler crab.] [Illustration: FIG. 150.--Spider crab.] Once while lifting branch coral into my boat on a coral reef, several crabs fell from the olive-hued mass, and like spiders in shape and form, made their way slowly along. Each one was covered with a growth of seaweed. I took a brush and scoured them, producing veritable spider crabs (Fig. 150). The body was pear-shaped; the claws were long and covered with sharp points. These crabs were placed in a tank, and almost immediately began to replace the seaweed which had been rubbed off, evidently being much annoyed at the cleaning process. In redecorating themselves they broke off small bits of seaweed from a branch, placed the broken portion against the mouth, evidently to attach some glutinous matter or animal mucilage, then raising it with an overhand movement, they attached it to the back. This was continually repeated until within a few hours the back of each crab was changed from a smooth surface to a miniature garden. As many times as the seaweed was removed, so many times was it replaced. The spider crabs range from the beautiful scarlet creatures found in the coral to the giant Macrocheira of Japan, which in large specimens has a spread of legs of twenty feet, some measuring twenty-two feet between the two large biting claws, each of which is ten and a half feet long. This huge crab is very slender, and is slow of movement, its body resembling a rough rock.